Birthing A Mass Murderer

Mass Murders Prevalent in US

Between 1962 and 2012 there were 292 mass shootings in the world and 90 of them took place in the United States, that is 31%. A shooting is considered to be accomplished by a mass murderer if there is a killing of four or more people who are not family members and are not gang related killings. We live in a country that has a severe problem with heartless killings triggered by mental illness and an obsession with fame according to CNN.

Columbine Shootings

Through firsthand experience I felt the collective suffering of the village at the hand of a mass murderer. When I came home to Colorado from my father’s funeral I was accosted by the senseless killings of twelve students, one teacher and twenty-one others who were injured in the Columbine shootings. The final year I lived in Colorado, the agony of the Aurora theatre shootings left twelve people dead and seventy people wounded. When something like this happens we shake our heads and try to get it all to fit into the mold of what we call normalcy but it is impossible. We have no context in which to place this type of tragedy.

Human Connection

Ethics and recognizing the reverence of life happens through socialization and communication. We learn about each other through tone of voice, voice inflection and cadence and expression of emotion. Eye contact and touching another on the shoulder are ways to show we care. When we are in the immediate proximity of another person we can actually be affected by the energy field around their physical body.

Through Neuro-Linguistic Programming we learn of the resonance that takes place when two people communicate by mirroring their body language and voice intonation. We also receive information from another person through the human energy field that help us to make decisions of attraction or rejection.

Connecting on these levels give us a sense of Oneness and helps us to respect life. Learning about others within our village, our workplace, our family teaches us to understand who they are. It helps us to understand how each person makes a contribution to make our lives flow and to be in balance.

Electronics Creating Separateness

Contrast this with a child who grew up with working parents and spends his time playing video games, watching violence on TV and texting abbreviated messages to his friends. There is no touching, eye contact, voice intonation, or energy exchange. A child who is already introverted becomes even more so by retreating to this minimum interaction with others.

This is the child who is more likely to feel separateness and a lack of recognizing the God within each other. This is the child who is crying out for attention and fame. This is the child who is more likely to pull out a gun when life gets difficult. On a smaller but also problematic level, this is the child who becomes the bully. He is the one who feels the separateness of a loner and the anger of not feeling his existence validated by others as a child of God.

One-ness Within the Village

We have a serious problem in our country. With only 5% of the world’s population and 31% of the mass shootings, we are certainly out of balance. This is not just an issue to be handled in homes and schools but within the village and the greater culture of our country. Electronics make our lives more efficient in many ways but we must make socialization a priority as there are many lives at stake.